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It's time to say goodbye!  This is going to be my last blog for a while because I'm preparing for exams, so it's a case of 'something's got to give'.I came dangerously close to giving up the allotment as well since we have raised beds for vegetables

satisfying week.Today I sorted out the autumn raspberries: pruning, clearing and feeding the bed. Autumn-fruiting raspberries produce fruit on new canes, so they should be cut to the ground in February to encourage them to produce this season's canes

ripping out the lawn and a whole herbaceous border - to be replaced by a gravel path, three raised beds and a greenhouse. No more mowing of the lawn (or arguments about why it hadn't been mown). If you're a busy person, it makes more sense to have

I have a soft spot for alpine strawberries: on our very first allotment our next door neighbour gave my then wee daughter a clump to grow in her own raised bed. We left them on the plot when we moved, but my daughter still talks about them fondly

August can often feel like a tricky time on the allotment. Lots of things like salad potatoes and beetroot have been harvested, leaving large gaps or whole beds free. Then there's the interruption of a summer holiday - should you sow anything new

the garden centre, ready to plant.Plant them 10cm apart (15cm if you want bigger onions) and keep them well watered in dry weather. Onions don't like growing in recently manured ground, but they do like fairly rich soil, so if you have any home-made compost

for growing 'belt and braces' veg like potatoes, cabbage, carrots and onions. Our raised beds at home will be used for growing what he views as culinary cul-de-sacs like broad beans and courgettes.One thing we both agree on is potatoes - we both love them

the distractions of computers and mobile phones, it seems that 11-year-old young ladies still imagine themselves frolicking in a flower garden with a trug across their arm.We've already got a bed of blood-red dahlias, which provide a lot of flowers for the house

Libra: flowerScorpio: leafSagittarius: fruitCapricorn: rootAquarius: flowerPisces: leafSo, calculating from Friday 12 June, 2010, which is a new moon, I can mark my calendar thus:12-19 June: period one (plant leafy crops)19-26 June: period two (plant fruit crops